Google Needs to Behave To Succeed, Say Chinese Bloggers

Following a CCTV reported that Google China provided  easy access pornographic material, which is illegal in China, Google.cn can no longer provide international content from June 22nd. Google.cn was required to restructure its content, that is, delete all the inappropriate content, and report on its clean up efforts to the Chinese government. However, it didn’t end there. On June 24, many Gmail users frantically reported that Gmail was inaccessible in the Mainland. It was later reported the Google Reader and other Google apps experienced blackouts as well. There was much anger on Twitter and the blogosphere. Access was not restored until the morning of the 25th.

BloggerInsight collected Chinese tech bloggers comments on the matter to learn more, all quotations are direct translations from their responses.

1. Why Google was singled out?

Common opinion believes Google is a well-known international company that is influential with Chinese netizens, businesses and the media.  If not Google, then who?

First, it was Google’s fault for linking to a huge amount of inappropriate content. When Google was launched in China, they knowingly entered into an agreement with the Chinese government in which they would do their utmost to make pornographic and indecent material inaccessible to the public. Clearly, Google had broken this agreement by linking to a great deal of pornographic material.

In the pursuit of profit and visitor maximization, Google’s system automatically associates and links certain keywords with pornographic content so that more visitors will use it as their preferred search engine. Based on visitors’ popular searches, it must come as no surprise that search results yield large amounts of inappropriate material.

Teenagers can easily find a lot of pornography through Google, and this kind of content is not allowed in China.

Secondly, Google is a big, international company.

There is a pretty good reason for Google to be singled out in this situation. As a well-known foreign company, Google represents a significant share of the market in China. After a series of campaigns forcing local sites to overhaul their webpages to eliminate inappropriate material, this campaign can be viewed as the Chinese government exerting pressure on international sites. Here, Google is a symbol by which the Chinese government proclaims a job well-done on cleaning up things on the home front and sends a clear message to international sites that they can’t get away with indecency.

The attack on Google may have arisen at this point because the government wanted to take some of the spotlight off the controversial Green Dam order. At the same time, by taking on a company with as much clout as Google, the Chinese government sends a clear message to corporations about their resolve and intentions for the Green Dam.

Thirdly, Google was not fully complying with the Chinese government’s internet control policy, and hasn’t been fully cooperating with government when disputes and controversies arose.

Google has always been unwilling to be investigated and blocked by the government when it comes to many issues such as Gmail.

Applications such as Google Reader and Google Documents are useful platforms for users to easily share information that the government does not approve of.  Google is adamant about providing comprehensive https services to ensure the security of SSL encryption, which makes it more difficult to be blocked by the GFW.

Fourth, Google does not run advertisements on CCTV. Google is not obligated to buy airtime on media outlets such as CCTV. Exposing that fact to the public will not influence medias’ revenues and cooperation with other advertising partners.

CCTV has no need to promote Google, because CCTV doesn’t get any ad revenue from Google, so CCTV has nothing to lose in reporting that Google’s not a “socially responsible” company. In the past, CCTV featured a story on the fake ads on Baidu. After Baidu spent over 40 million RMB on ads with the network, all the bad press went away.

What’s more, a couple of negative news stories about CCTV were revealed on the internet, including the one about CCTV terminating contracts with over 1,600 of part-time or temporary workers after the New Labor Law took effect in 2007 . CCTV’s negative news can’t hide on the internet.

Fifth, Google is an advanced search engine and is the only search engine that provides comprehensive international content to Chinese netizens.

As the largest search engine website, Google controls enormous amounts of information and data. Compared to other domestic search engines, which mainly focus on Chinese results, Google provides information from beyond China. Consequently, as long as the government wants to supervise the internet, Google will definitely be the first targeted one.

If not Google, who else? Only Google meets the conditions for this kind of assault. Additionally, there is a rumor that Google.cn’s market share has been growing, so Baidu was one of “black hands” behind this incident.

2. How do you see this incident affecting Google China’s strategic planning and user trust?

Most people think Google.cn has to and is already becoming more cooperative with the Chinese government. The fact of the matter is that from June 22nd Google.cn no longer provides international content. Google.cn has agreed to regularly report progress in restricting inappropriate material to the Chinese government. This might affect different users differently.

I think Google.cn will operate more in line with the government’s policies to a large extent. In other words, they will agree to more regulation and oversight. But I don’t think it will influence experienced Chinese internet users who trust Google more than Baidu. These users also have advanced knowledge of using Google. And most of them are familiar with the tools for accessing websites that been blocked. As less savvy netizens, Google.cn can fully meet their demands by providing what Baidu can give them.

Some people who haven’t been using Google as their primary search tool may use it less frequently, which may decrease its market share. However, a large group of new users may be drawn to it after all the media attention. Good or bad, there has been a lot of publicity for Google.

The government’s admonishment of Google will accelerate the company’s localization, which will lead to its further separation from Google.com. On the other hand, Google.cn will develop more business such as free music and Google pinyin for more profit in China. As for user trust, it has actually indirectly increased its credibility. Although it got some flack from the government, it does not change the fact that it is still a great search engine, meaning its mainstream customers will not leave. The media coverage effectively introduced Google to more new visitors.

Some people who are more trusting of traditional media, such as CCTV, who have never given Google a chance may now be even more unlikely to go there. Parents may be unwilling to let their kids use Google. This would be a great loss for the site. All the new regulations will decrease the quality of Google search results.

Human beings like doing what they are told not to. People are more inclined to do something if it is banned. I believe if customers know Google.cn has been forced to delete large amounts of useful information, they will be more likely to use Google.com.

Most bloggers said they would keep their eye on Google.cn’s developments.

3. How will this effect the way other international companies operate in China?

The international business community has been warned: what works in other countries might not work here.  China remains a unique market in terms of consumer tastes and regulations.  Companies need to follow the governments rules to succeed.

Generally speaking, in the process of localization, international companies tend to focus on consumer tastes and market share.  They make technology and content a priority, especially in the IT industry. Google merely having a quality reputation with customers is not enough to be a successful company in China. Google should have paid more attention to their public relations efforts to prevent the unexpected attack. On the other hand, they could have also cooperated with the government and adjusted their business model accordingly. For example, their Chinese subsidiary should be more independent instead of linking and indexing content from the headquarters. Also, to accelerate localization, more and more new business models are being developed locally while many traditional or new foreign products and services are simply avoiding the Chinese Market.

Increased operational costs are necessary cooperate with local government.

The direct influence of the Google event on other international companies in China is that they must reconsider the important issue of localization now. They have to regulate information more strictly in the process of localization. Internet companies will be most influenced, so it is them who have to think about the additional costs of business in China.

To the Internet industry, the Google event indicates a more severe surveillance of the internet by the government, so others have to be more careful if they want to enter the market.

To the IT industry, the event is just a warning sign telling companies that the government still has a tight control on economic development. To be more specific on the recent event, this is a message that could force companies to support the Green Dam and other similar extreme measures.

There will be greater attention placed on the problem of Internet control and the world will need to keep up with China’s attempts at internet censorship and there will definitely be more discussion on the Google case. At the same time, Chinese netizens are reminded by this incident that the Internet is not a free space.

As for the industry, IT companies that operate in China must be more cooperative with the Chinese government and enhance its internal censorship efforts.

Contributed by Mike Fung, Lucas Engehardt, Ying Xue